Visiting local haunt Sitar India Palace has gotten us hooked on Indian food. I’m especially fond of their creamy, satisfying chicken tikka masala, so I decided to attempt this dish at home, with naan and basmati rice to accompany it. The chicken marinated in a brew of spices and yogurt in the fridge for an hour, which was less time than I typically like to marinate things, but an hour did seem sufficient time for the meat to absorb the spicy flavorings. The sauce consisted of a piquant blend of yogurt, tomato sauce, …

I took another whack at the Pasta with Red Sauce recipe featured on the ‘Techniques’ episode of No Reservations tonight. It came out a lot better than it did last time, though I’ve yet to perfect it. On my first try, the tomatoes cooked so far down that they were almost dry, leaving me with barely enough sauce for 9 oz. of pasta. This time, I wound up with a big ol’ pot of sauce that was just a little thinner than I would have liked. Maybe next time it’ll …

Tonight I made one of my favorite dishes, Spanish Chicken with Saffron Rice. I use a simplified version of this recipe from Epicurious.com that I got at A Southern Season. They were selling saffron that day, and this recipe is as good a reason as any to splurge on some.
The changes my recipe made to the Epicurious verson were: using 3 lbs. of chicken breast instead of a whole chicken and omitting the peppers and peas. My version also didn’t specify that you were to cook the rice in the …

Or, in my unique version, oily-yet-delicious tomato sludge.

Want another reason to appreciate our troops? Check out the meals they subsist on.

Frosting lovers, I have found your Valhalla.

Picard may love his Earl Grey, hot, Worf prefers prune juice, and the Cardassians can’t get enough kanar, but all those potables pale in comparison to the beverage Starfleet really runs on: coffee. More vital than plasma fluid, coffee’s what keeps admirals and ensigns alike up and alert whenever the Romulans attack or there’s a space-time continuum anomaly to be puzzled through. So, without further ado, I bring you the Greatest Coffee Moments in Starfleet History:

Only that which never ceases to hurt stays in the memory . . .